A “vibrant” Queens mom of four died at a Dominican Republic resort within hours of coming down with a mystery stomach illness, her family told The Post on Friday.
Donette Edge Cannon, 38, visited the embattled tourist destination on a family trip last year to Sunscape Bávaro Beach Punta Cana to celebrate her brother-in-law’s birthday.
Her death adds to a growing list of American tourists dying on the Caribbean island, which has been under siege by reports of fatal illnesses at various resorts.
Cannon, who owned a catering business, arrived at the all-inclusive resort on May 14, 2018. She spent the next four days in the sun and taking pictures — even partaking on a dune buggy excursion.
“She was posting videos to show how much fun she was having,” her sister, Candace Edge Johnson, told The Post on Friday.
The group experienced minor stomach issues over the course of the trip, but nothing that caused concern for Cannon, who suffered from diabetes and was receiving dialysis treatment.
“For us, throughout the trip, we kept using the bathroom,” Johnson said. “We went to a restaurant in the same condition, anytime we ate we were using the bathroom.”
The final night of the trip, the group went out to dinner, then danced before heading back to their respective rooms.
“We were singing and all dancing up to the room that night,” Johnson said. “When we all said good night, we were dancing.”
But in the middle of the night, Cannon woke up with a stomach ache, began vomiting and having diarrhea. When she didn’t get better by morning, the family decided to call a doctor.
“My cousin said, ‘It’s getting worse. I’m going to have the medics come and check her out,’” Johnson said. “Once they got to the room, she fell unconscious and they took her to the hospital.”
Emergency responders were told about Donette’s kidney issues, but she was brought to a hospital without a dialysis machine, her sister said.
The hospital told her relatives it was too late to take her elsewhere. “They basically let her die on the table,” her sister said.
Dominican officials performed an autopsy that found the cause of death was kidney failure.
“Their conclusion was renal failure, but it never addressed what initially got her sick in the first place,” Johnson told The Post.
Still shocked at the turn of events, her sister said she didn’t question the resort about how Cannon — who had four children under the age of 15, including 6-year-old twins — might have become sick.
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“We were so traumatized that we didn’t think about these things,” Johnson said. “I would’ve pursued the resort more about whether there was food poisoning, and the decisions made about hospitals with dialysis, and just their [lack of] urgency to alert people [for help].”
A request for comment from the Sunscape Bávaro Beach Punta Cana wasn’t immediately returned.
Johnson said that after seeing recent reports of fatalities on the island, she had new doubts about her sister’s death.
“I think now that looking at the other incidents that it definitely [is] something deeper and sheds on their health care practices,” Johnson told The Post. “It’s not like the United States.”
She said she “would never return” to the country and wants to warn others to be “very cautious.”
“If the God forbid something happens to you, you could be the next victim,” Johnson said.
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